wasn’t sure I could move on my own anyway. All I could think about was getting through that painting, making it come back to life so it could return me to mine. But something about the way Dean had paled broke through that need.
Kelsey eased through the doorway.
Dean seemed to try to shake something off. “Her presence is quite overwhelming. It’s unlike anything I’ve felt before. I don’t even need to get into her head to read her intent.”
“Her?” Daniel asked as he approached the door.
“The hallway’s clear,” Kelsey said quietly.
Dev took our back, with Dean behind him. “Turn to the left and we can skirt around the edge of Ether to get to the stairwell.”
“Yes, I sense a female witch.” Dean’s eyes had gone a bit glassy, though he continued to move with us. “She’s filled with dark energy. She’s given up much to gain her power, and she won’t let anyone take it back. She’s been powerless before, and now she’s a queen. She’s projecting quite loudly. I think she wants me to know she’s here.”
“She senses you?” Kelsey picked up the pace, starting to jog down the long hallway.
It had to be Nimue. She was certainly a queen, and I knew there had been times when she’d felt powerless. I was almost certain she also had a thrall stone in her head. It was the only thing that could explain the change in my once dear friend.
“She senses all of us,” Dean replied. “She’s stalking us. We’re her prey, and when she brings us all to her master, she will be able to take her proper place at his side. She knows I can sense her. She likes my fear. It makes her feel powerful. Wait. There was a moment. She felt one of you and she had a moment of weakness.”
“Nimue and I were close once,” I explained. Maybe I could get to her. The thrall stone should only influence her. It shouldn’t cause her to throw out all of her morality.
“She cares about one of you. She never thought she would see you again. God, she doesn’t want you to see her like this.” Dean put a hand on his heart, like it ached and he could ease it. “But she is resolved. She chose this path and she will see it through no matter what. She belongs to the darkness now.”
Kelsey had turned down the second hallway, the one that would lead to the stairwell we needed, and she stopped.
“Olivia?”
Standing there, blocking our path, was Kelsey’s best friend, Olivia Carey. Liv. Once she’d been one of the kindest souls I’d known. She’d been a witch who used earth magic to help her friends.
The woman who stood in front of us only vaguely resembled the woman we’d known. Now she was all witch, and she was going to kill us.
“Welcome home, Your Highnesses,” she said, the air crackling around her with power.
It was not the homecoming I’d been expecting.
Chapter Two
“Olivia, what the hell is going on? First off, what did you do to your hair?” Kelsey asked.
There were several physical changes to the woman we’d known, the one who used to teach English in the school our kids had attended. Her hair reached her waist, and it was a pitch black that didn’t look natural with her skin. She’d had a warm brown color before. There was something lovely and cold to her appearance now.
“Really? Twelve years and that’s what you say to me?” Liv rolled her brown eyes and for a second her lips started to tug up in a familiar grin.
“Dude, it’s been like four days tops for me. What’s going on with you, bestie? And when did you start to love the leather?” Kelsey took a step toward Liv. “It doesn’t matter. Can you help us get out of here?”
“Kelsey, stop,” Daniel ordered.
Kelsey turned slightly. “It’s Liv. She might look weird, but she’s still my best friend. What are you doing here? Are you spying for Trent?”
Daniel set me on my feet but kept a firm hold of my hand as though he expected me to take off on my own. I wasn’t planning on doing anything of the kind. I shoved my heartache to the side because we were in full-on survival mode now. Kelsey was wrong. I believed Dean. Something had happened to Liv in the years we’d been gone. I’d seen the beginnings of this change when she’d used Arwyna to prove her powers to Nimue and Myrddin.